Holiday Preview...Christmas Characters From Vintage Tins!

Recent Tins.

Found at Flea-ology...a local Vintage Fleamarket.

I recently posted the picture of some tins I found at Flea-ology, which is held at my good friend Paula's home in Payson, Utah.  Paula blogs at Pollyanna Reinvents and is my favorite vendor at Treasures Antiques in Springville.  The moment I saw these, I knew they would become new additions to my collection of holiday characters made from vintage tins.  I have just finished a couple of these characters and can't wait to share them with you.

Jack Frost...

Jack Frost...a snowman from a vintage Postum tin.

Jack is about 8" tall on a 6" oval base.

Vintage Postum Tin.

I forgot to get a picture of the tin I found.

A Bit of Postum History...

I have fond memories of Postum.  My grandparents drank it all the time and I enjoyed sipping it from a tea cup and pretending it was coffee.  Members of the Mormon faith abstain from coffee, so it was very popular in the Mountain West.  It is made from roasted wheat bran, wheat, and molasses.  Although the Postum Cereal Company stated in its ads that it didn't taste like coffee, the drink was enormously popular during World War II, when coffee was rationed.

There is a similar product in Germany, called Caro...also known in the US as Pero.  My German friend, Monika...who is also a Mormon...used to invite me over for "Coffee" every Wednesday.  She brought out her nicest tea set and baked a traditional German dessert.  I must have downed gallons of Caro during my three years overseas.  I still miss it...especially the "instant crystals."

Kraft discontinued production of Postum in 2007.  Eliza's Quest Food, licensed the trademark in 2012 and sold it online.  Since 2013, it has been available in a limited number of stores...primarily in Utah and other Mountain States.

Side View.

Jack's head is paper clay...his arms are measuring spoons.

Back View.

I thought it would be fun to put Jack in a snowy scene.

Dri-Shu Santa...

Cute Santa made from a Dri-Shu tin.

Dri-Shu protects Santa's boots from Snow and Sleet.

Santa is about 6" tall.

His head is a vintage Santa ornament.

I used wooden half-eggs for his boots and trimmed them with chenille.

Tin for a tummy...no bowl full of jelly!

His hands are some kind of electrical doo-hickeys.

I bought a big bag of them for $1 at a vintage yard sale.

Side and Back View.

Santa's Winter Scene.

Give Thanks...

Thanksgiving scene with old spice tin.

I have a bunch of turkey and pilgrim candles.

I haven't made a lot of Thanksgiving crafts...my house is decorated for Christmas before Thanksgiving so my Idaho Falls grand kids can see my Christmas decorations when they come for dinner. I do decorate the tables for Thanksgiving.

I am thankful for so many things...I need to express those thanks more fully.

I am so thankful for this blog and those who read it.

Thank you!

Thanksgiving Baby and the Long Winter!

We Have Too Many Blessings To Count!

We have so many things to be thankful for this time of year.  Our daughter Sascha Anna Hatfield is one of those blessings.  Today is Sascha's 31st birthday.  Although today is a Monday, Sascha was born on Thanksgiving Day in 1983.  This is her birthday story!

Sascha's Story

Sascha wrote her story when she was twelve...

...bravely confessing to kissing Snuggle on the TV screen.

The darling little bear was her favorite toy.

Sascha was born on Thanksgiving Day at the beginning of the longest, darkest and coldest winter I had ever known.  When the pains started in the middle of the night, I knew there was no need to hurry or wake my husband...after all I was an "experienced" mother by now.  This would be our fourth child and I just knew she would be a girl!  I had no ultrasound to tell me...I just knew in my mother's heart.

Quilting the pink and aqua Teddy Bear quilt.

How strong was my faith? 

Everything I made was "Sascha Pink" and "Sascha Green."

I sat up on the living room sofa and looked out the window, watching the night progress to morning.  I thought about the life we had had since moving from Germany to El Paso, and finally...home again!

We purchased a house in the (then) rural community of Highland, Utah.  It was a modest split-level on a pleasant street with a fantastic view of the Wasatch Mountains to the east.  On my Thanksgiving vigil I watched those same snow-capped peaks glow pink in the rays of the rising sun.  Later it would snow...and keep on snowing.

Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade

We spent the morning as we usually did each year...watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and the annual showing of "Charlotte's Web."  Though what pigs and spiders have to do with Thanksgiving is a mystery to me.  The pains didn't go away, but kept a steady pace throughout the day.

"Some Pig"

I was so glad it wasn't my turn to host the family festivities.  Early that afternoon we bundled the kids up for the trip to Grandma Devey's house.  Even though I was in labor, I was not going to miss a Thanksgiving meal that I didn't have to prepare myself!



Over 30 years later I still have issues with pumpkin pie.

We settled ourselves around the holiday table sharing jokes and stories.  I would frequently stop between bites and wait quietly for the contractions to pass.  They were getting stronger...and closer.  After the pumpkin pie, I whispered to George that maybe we ought to head for the hospital.  The Cowboys were playing.  "Hold on until the game is over," he said.  So he watched the game...and I watched my watch.

The New(ish) American Fork Hospital

After the game, we drove to the hospital.  I was nauseous from the pumpkin pie and anxious to get the whole thing over with.  Where was Dr. Willis?  The nurse said to be patient, he'd be along soon.

"M.A.S.H."  Doc Willis's favorite show and Hawkeye Pierce's biggest fan.

So were was Dr. Willis?  In the Doctors' Lounge watching a re-run of "M.A.S.H."  But all was forgiven, when the dear man prescribed for me the "Cadillac of Anesthetics" and for the first time I actually enjoyed being there for the delivery.  If only I could have gotten rid of the taste of pumpkin pie.



Sascha, one-day old.

Her little nose looked just like her grandmother's.

Sascha Anna Hatfield was born at 11:40 p.m. and weighed 9 lbs. 8 oz.  Later in the morning, as I was holding my new little daughter, I looked out of the window.  It was snowing!  George and I remarked that maybe the ski resorts would open early that year; and it would be nice to have a white Christmas.  But the snow kept falling.  The Highland winds howled across the fields, carrying snow that drifted as high...it seemed...as houses.  The sun retreated for days on end...appearing rarely and only as a small white disk giving no warmth. When it wasn't snowing, fog lay heavy like a wet wool blanket.  This went on until about March.  It was the coldest winter we had ever experienced.

Sascha's Blessing Day!

Her eyes are teary, but the dress and bonnet I made for her looked great!

Being virtually snowed-in, there was plenty of time to make little dresses and bonnets and work on Sascha's blessing/christening dress.  It was so much fun to make ruffly little dresses.  George wouldn't let me dress the two older girls in frilly girly things.  I also dressed her in vintage dresses I found in the thrift shops.

Sascha's Name...

We chose the name Sascha because I fell in love with the name when we lived in Delmenhorst, Germany.  Downstairs in our apartment building lived a German family with the most adorable little boy named Sascha.  He was like a Hummel figurine, all curly blonde hair and rosy cheeks...as plump as a little sparrow.  I knew George would never let me name our son Sascha, even though it was a boy's name in Germany.  Sascha is a nickname for Alexander...spelled "Sasha" in Russia.  Sascha's middle name, Anna, was in honor of the sweet Swedish-American girl across the street.  Anna's mother became one of my dear friends and is one of the kindest women I have ever met.



Amazing resemblance!

Random Bits of Sascha... 

Our Family Portrait

The beginning of a creative, artistic childhood...

...led to a blue ribbon and a showing at the Springville Art Museum.

Her triple-great grandfather, Joseph Kerby has several pieces in the museum's collections.

Piano Lessons.

When Sascha was quite small and her older siblings were at school, we would sometimes sit at the piano and I would guide her little fingers to play a song we loved on "Sesame Street."  We changed the words to suit ourselves.  We sang...

Sascha's name goes tip-toe tip-toe

Sascha's name goes tip-toe along

Everybody tip-toe tip-toe, Sascha

Everybody tip-toe tip-toe along.

Another favorite:

Sascha's galoshes, coconuts and grapes,

Sascha's galoshes, coconuts and grapes,

Sascha's galoshes, coconuts and graaaaaapes,

Sascha's galoshes, coconuts and grapes!

  

She was such a smart little girl and begged to take piano lessons with her big sisters, but in the end, she was a little too young.

From the first day of school...

...to the last, Sascha never stopped learning,

creating and growing into the beautiful intelligent young woman she is today. 

In fact, she has gone back to college working on a double major in Forensic Science and Bio Chemistry.  Too smart for her own good! 

Happy Birthday, Sascha! 

A beautiful girl...too many selfies to choose from!

We love you!

Mom & Dad

P.S.  My High School Marching Band...American Fork High School will be marching in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade this year!  Yay!!!  I am so proud to be a Caveman!



Pilgrims and Pioneers...My Family History at Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving in old Alpine, Utah...

Autumn brings with it the desire to put away food, fuel, warm clothing and bedding, along with feed for livestock against the harshness of winter.

The days shorten and feelings of urgency grow stronger.  There are no longer enough hours of daylight to get everything done.  Many hands make for lighter work.  If everyone in the village helps out, there will be plenty for all.  When the work is done, there will be time for fun and celebrations.  A time of Thanksgiving.

The hardy settlers of Alpine and Highland, Utah found ways to mix work and fun during harvest time.  When the fruit trees in Alpine started to produce, those with orchards shared with others.  The ladies came with paring knives and pans and worked for hours preparing fruit to be dried.  It would be placed on clean cloths upon the roofs, slabs on sawhorses, or whatever else was handy.

The men brought their husking pegs and shucked corn while the ladies did fruit.  The children enjoyed these occasions and anxiously waited for the piles of corn shucks to increase, as they had several games they liked to play among them: hide-and-seek, run-my-sheepie-run, and tag.  At the end of the day, a delicious dinner would be served under the apple trees on tables made of boards laid on sawhorses.

Note: Turkeys in Alpine were raised by the Watkins family.  Hertha, left, is admiring that year's fine flock.

Other autumn activities which combined work and recreation were quilting bees and "rug-rag bees."  No materials were wasted.  If the cloth wasn't too worn it was patched into quilt tops.  What wasn't good enough for quilts was torn into rug-rags and the remaining scraps were clipped into small pieces to stuff bed ticks, pillows or cushions.

I remember some old quilts Grandma Zetta had from the time when her family raised fruit in Fort Canyon.  In those days whenever a quilt began to wear out, she simply recovered it in another layer of fabric.  Women like my grandmother definitely followed Brigham Young's counsel to "make it do, or do without."  They were born recyclers!  Those quilts were extremely heavy, though, as well as damp and musty.

When Thanksgiving Day came in Alpine, it was generally celebrated rather quietly.  People spent the day at home with their families.  Later they added an afternoon dance for the children.  An adult dance and ball game was held in the evening.

The Pilgrim...

Going back even further in time, I learned the First Thanksgiving in Plymouth, Massachusetts, was a traditional English harvest festival to which the colonists invited Massasoit who was the most important sachem (leader) among the Wamapanoag Indians.

The festival was celebrated in response to "God's favorable Providence" in times of plentiful game and bountiful harvest...with no little thanks to the Indians, who had introduced the settlers to native food plants and animals, and deserve much of the credit for keeping the Pilgrims from starving.

Among those gathered at the feast in 1621 was a man named Francis Cooke and his 14-year-old son John.  Francis' wife, Hester, was still in England.  She would follow in 1623 on the Anne with her three other children, Jacob, Jane, and Hester.

There isn't anything particularly remarkable about this family.  If Francis and John had not sailed on the Mayflower in 1620, no one would have remembered them at all, except maybe their descendents.  But this is where it gets interesting.

The Pioneer...

One of Cooke's direct descendents was a Mormon pioneer named John Joshua Tanner who came to Utah in 1851 and settled in South Cottonwood in the Salt Lake Valley.  The family of John Joshua Tanner now numbers in the thousands...hundreds of which live here in northern Utah County.  He is my ancestor as well.

Both men...Tanner and Cooke...were men of conscience and conviction, a remarkable family pattern to hold up over such a long stretch of time.  The Pilgrims were refugees from religious persecution in England, just as the Mormon pioneers traveled west to practice their faith in peace more than two centuries later.

I became a member of the Daughters of Utah Pioneers in 2003.  Since then I have learned many things about my pioneer ancestors.  Because of what I have learned, Thanksgiving has a special meaning for me.  Family history is kind of like an archealogical dig.  Among the dirt and stones a single golden nugget of information could be hiding.  Discovering my  family genealogy is a blessing for which I am eternally grateful. 

At the top of my list of things for which I am grateful this season, I am placing the names of Francis Cooke and John Joshua Tanner...the Pilgrim and the Pioneer.

Blessings to you and your families this Thanksgiving.


Note:  This is a repost from November 2011.

Pilgrims and Pioneers...Family History at Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving in old Alpine, Utah...
Autumn brings with it the desire to put away food, fuel, warm clothing and bedding, along with feed for livestock against the harshness of winter.

The days shorten and feelings of urgency grow stronger.  There are no longer enough hours of daylight to get everything done.  Many hands make for lighter work.  If everyone in the village helps out, there will be plenty for all.  When the work is done, there will be time for fun and celebrations.  A time of Thanksgiving.

The hardy settlers of Alpine and Highland, Utah found ways to mix work and fun during harvest time.  When the fruit trees in Alpine started to produce, those with orchards shared with others.  The ladies came with paring knives and pans and worked for hours preparing fruit to be dried.  It would be placed on clean cloths upon the roofs, slabs on sawhorses, or whatever else was handy.

The men brought their husking pegs and shucked corn while the ladies did fruit.  The children enjoyed these occasions and anxiously waited for the piles of corn shucks to increase, as they had several games they liked to play among them: hide-and-seek, run-my-sheepie-run, and tag.  At the end of the day, a delicious dinner would be served under the apple trees on tables made of boards laid on sawhorses.

Note: Turkeys in Alpine were raised by the Watkins family.  Hertha, left, is admiring that year's fine flock.

Other autumn activities which combined work and recreation were quilting bees and "rug-rag bees."  No materials were wasted.  If the cloth wasn't too worn it was patched into quilt tops.  What wasn't good enough for quilts was torn into rug-rags and the remaining scraps were clipped into small pieces to stuff bed ticks, pillows or cushions.

I remember some old quilts Grandma Zetta had from the time when her family raised fruit in Fort Canyon.  In those days whenever a quilt began to wear out, she simply recovered it in another layer of fabric.  Women like my grandmother definitely followed Brigham Young's counsel to "make it do, or do without."  They were born recyclers!  Those quilts were extremely heavy, though, as well as damp and musty.

When Thanksgiving Day came in Alpine, it was generally celebrated rather quietly.  People spent the day at home with their families.  Later they added an afternoon dance for the children.  An adult dance and ball game was held in the evening.

The Pilgrim...
Going back even further in time, I learned the First Thanksgiving in Plymouth, Massachusetts, was a traditional English harvest festival to which the colonists invited Massasoit who was the most important sachem (leader) among the Wamapanoag Indians.

The festival was celebrated in response to "God's favorable Providence" in times of plentiful game and bountiful harvest...with no little thanks to the Indians, who had introduced the settlers to native food plants and animals, and deserve much of the credit for keeping the Pilgrims from starving.

Among those gathered at the feast in 1621 was a man named Francis Cooke and his 14-year-old son John.  Francis' wife, Hester, was still in England.  She would follow in 1623 on the Anne with her three other children, Jacob, Jane, and Hester.

There isn't anything particularly remarkable about this family.  If Francis and John had not sailed on the Mayflower in 1620, no one would have remembered them at all, except maybe their descendents.  But this is where it gets interesting.

The Pioneer...
One of Cooke's direct descendents was a Mormon pioneer named John Joshua Tanner who came to Utah in 1851 and settled in South Cottonwood in the Salt Lake Valley.  The family of John Joshua Tanner now numbers in the thousands...hundreds of which live here in northern Utah County.  He is my ancestor as well.

Both men...Tanner and Cooke...were men of conscience and conviction, a remarkable family pattern to hold up over such a long stretch of time.  The Pilgrims were refugees from religious persecution in England, just as the Mormon pioneers traveled west to practice their faith in peace more than two centuries later.

I became a member of the Daughters of Utah Pioneers in 2003.  Since then I have learned many things about my pioneer ancestors.  Because of what I have learned, Thanksgiving has a special meaning for me.  Family history is kind of like an archealogical dig.  Among the dirt and stones a single golden nugget of information could be hiding.  Discovering my  family genealogy is a blessing for which I am eternally grateful.


At the top of my list of things for which I am grateful this season, I am placing the names of Francis Cooke and John Joshua Tanner...the Pilgrim and the Pioneer.

Blessings to you and your families this Thanksgiving.